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Iraqi PM calls on Iraqi politicians to unite

Associated Press
6:12 a.m. EDT June 25, 2014

An Iraqi volunteer force trains in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, June 24, 2014. Iraq's top Kurdish leader warned visiting Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday that a rapid Sunni insurgent advance has already created "a new reality and a new Iraq," signaling that the U.S. faces major difficulties in its efforts to promote unity among the country's divided factions. The U.N., meanwhile, said more than 1,000 people, most civilians, have been killed in Iraq so far this month, the highest death toll since the U.S. military withdrew from the country in December 2011. (AP Photo/Ahmed al-Husseini)(Photo: Ahmed al-Husseini, AP)

BAGHDAD – Iraq’s prime minister has called on his nation’s political blocs to close ranks in the face of Sunni militants but gave no concrete promise of greater political inclusiveness for minority Sunnis.

U.S. officials have pressed for the next Iraqi government to be more inclusive, seeking to draw Sunni support away from militants who this month swept over much of the country’s north.

In his weekly address to the nation Wednesday, Nouri al-Maliki gave only a vague call for “all political forces to reconcile” with the principles of Iraq’s constitutional democracy.

He rejected forming a “national salvation” government, which he said would go against the results of parliament elections.

Al-Maliki’s coalition won the most seats in the April 30 vote — 92 of the 328-seat chamber.